Italy Seizes $1 Bln in Mafia Property

ROME - Italian authorities seized land and buildings worth more than 700-million euros from suspected mafia members on Thursday in what Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called the biggest operation of its kind.

The vast tracts of land and hundreds of buildings seized by legal authorities belonged to suspected members of the Naples-area Camorra mafia, one of Italy's four organised crime syndicates.

"The sequestered property ... belongs to the successors of Dante Passarelli," a police statement said, noting that Passarelli died in "a mysterious accident" in 2004 before being convicted of mafia links along with leaders of the Casalesi clan.

The clan is considered the most powerful and ruthless of the Camorra.

"The total value of the property... exceeds 700-million euros," the statement said.

Mr. Berlusconi said the operation was the "biggest ever carried out".

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said the preliminary estimate of the value of the property could swell to up to two-billion euros.

"It is the largest anti-mafia operation ever carried out in the history of the Italian Republic," Mr. Maroni said.

Late last month police arrested 12 alleged members of the Casalesi clan including the father and brother of Michele Zagaria, a boss who has been on the run for 15 years.

ROME - Italian authorities seized land and buildings worth more than 700-million euros from suspected mafia members on Thursday in what Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called the biggest operation of its kind.